


Moonlit Dance

by Shujinkakusama



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Pre-Canon, War Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 07:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6413764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fluffy oneshot of Pearl and Garnet not Fusing. But at least they can dance! // Slightly post-war, oneshot, fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moonlit Dance

Garnet’s hand spanned Pearl’s back with practiced ease, a Gem settling briefly between narrow shoulder blades, squarely against the ridges of Pearl’s spine. Without fail, the pressure, the intimate feel of either of the Fusion’s Gems there, made Pearl melt. The circumstances didn’t much matter; really, almost any touch from Garnet had that effect on her, but it was especially pronounced when she could feel the magic that made Garnet _real_ against her skin, through her tunic. Pearl arched backwards into that hand, bending as if her spine had no resistance at all.

 

Garnet was electricity and warm and cold energy, a balancing act of opposites that made Pearl shiver in delight whenever she looked her way. The knight knew perfectly well that her feelings were inappropriate; knew she would get found out someday, but the longer this went on, and deeper the emotions ran, the less she could care about the inevitable.

 

What she struggled with was that Garnet wasn’t the _only_ Gem she loved—and she knew it was love—and that with each passing day, that love grew more outwardly obvious. Rose Quartz had caught her at it long ago and encouraged it, insisted that Pearl let these feelings grow and thrive until something came of them. And in her Gem, Pearl could feel the way they overtook her every thought, the way that Garnet made her cheeks color with the slightest whispered compliment, the urge to brush against her outside of combat and training situations. She wanted to touch Garnet as often—and perhaps as _intimately_ —as she and Rose sometimes touched, and Pearl didn’t know what to do with that want.

 

Presently, they were practicing Fusion; Sardonyx had been a merry accident, once, and Rose encouraged that they try to form her again and again. But Pearl found that outside of battle, it was impossible to focus; Garnet spun her neatly, and Pearl drew her arms in close while she twirled, coming into contact with the bigger Gem’s breastplate briefly. She spread her arms next, shifted her shoulders, and Garnet’s Gems burned with magic as they slid along her slim arms, up to her hands—and Pearl gasped, suddenly extracting herself from the routine.

 

“Sorry,” she said breathlessly, cheeks ablaze. “I—I can’t.”

 

“We don’t have to,” Garnet offered, and Pearl wondered whether her companion’s smile was from amusement at her failure to perform. “I don’t think we’ve perfected the routine anyway.”

 

“No, no, you’re—you’re perfect, Garnet,” Pearl protested, looking away. The ground had abruptly become incredibly interesting. “I’m just… nervous. Anxious. Scared?” She laughed, brows furrowed. Laughter wasn’t the right response to the tightening in her chest, she told herself. Garnet said nothing while she gathered her thoughts. “It’s not like simply _dancing_ , and I get… caught up worrying. About getting it right, and then I misstep. I’m sorry.”

 

Garnet laughed outright then, catching Pearl’s burning cheeks in her hands and leaning in close, visor only centimeters from the Gem on Pearl’s forehead. “You? Miss a dance step?” She grinned, and Pearl could see her reflection, blue faced and horribly embarrassed, in Garnet’s visor, but she couldn’t tear away. Garnet’s hands against her cheeks felt heavenly. Her stomach somersaulted when Garnet spoke again. “I think you must be mistaken, Pearl. You’ve never missed a beat.”

 

“Y-yes, well,” Pearl protested weakly, “I do have trouble with… with Fusing. We haven’t been able to since…”

 

Since a wild night of dancing without abandon, away from the others, while Rose and Amethyst enjoyed a human king’s company and court, and perhaps mostly a feast. They had found somewhere far enough from the banquet hall to be totally deserted, but just down wind enough that the music carried, and laughed and spun each other as if the full moon shining down on them had cast a spell. They were drunk on blue moonbeams, dancing and twirling to music they could barely hear; Garnet had tossed Pearl into the air, and the next thing they knew, two—three—Gems had joined into one, and in a marvelous flurry of dragonflies, Sardonyx was born.

 

And Pearl had never, ever, felt so much radiance and love and _strength_ —and it terrified her as much as it soothed every crack the war had left in her soul. It burned and healed and chilled her all at once, and all she knew was that she never wanted it to end. She could experience Garnet, fully and completely, experience Ruby and Sapphire’s love for each other on a level she’d never imagined, and she never wanted to feel anything else. Their love was blinding.

 

All things did end, however, and they’d parted with Pearl caught neatly in Garnet’s arms, panting and almost nose-to-nose. Pearl had naturally confessed it to Rose immediately, and ever since then…

 

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Garnet offered at length, watching the way Pearl’s wide eyes betrayed her thoughts. “You’re thinking too much. That first time, it was about _feeling_ each other, wasn’t it?”

 

Pearl nodded meekly, unable to do much else with Garnet’s hands against her cheeks. Garnet smiled, reaching to thread her fingers through the older Gem’s hair. “Then don’t think so much. In fact, let’s forget Fusing. Let’s just dance.”

 

“Just—just to dance?” Pearl asked, immediately regretting asking the obvious.

 

Garnet grinned, and to Pearl’s immeasurable surprise, she snapped her fingers, and her visor vanished in a flurry of light. “Just to dance,” Garnet affirmed, reaching to grasp Pearl’s hand. “You and me. I want to experience _you_ this time.”

 

Pearl couldn’t breathe for a moment, and was glad that it wasn’t a necessity. She swallowed hard, then lifted her free hand to settle it on Garnet’s shoulder. “Yes,” she murmured, letting Garnet tug her flush against her chest. “Let’s dance.”

 

Years later, Pearl would realize that Garnet had caught her in the act before they’d ever Fused—that the Fusion knew, unquestioningly, that she was in love with her. But until then, she cherished this.


End file.
